


The Life and Times of Angus McDonald

by Tazartist (KarkatHorns)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angus may or may not be a silver dragon, Gen, If so it won't be relevant until later in the fic, Just a Short Cute fic about Angus's room in Taako's house
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-24 20:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20711768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarkatHorns/pseuds/Tazartist
Summary: Angus McDonald is 11 years old. It’s been almost a year since Story and Song, and a lot has happened with the birds. Taako lives in a large house in New Neverwinter with his boyfriend, Kravitz. Taako told Angus over letter to come visit during his breaks off from school, saying that he “definitely better not be thinking that because he’s in a new nerd school he can weasel his way out of magic lessons from the one and only.” And with that, Angus had to visit.





	1. Home.

Angus McDonald is 11 years old. It’s been almost a year since Story and Song, and a lot has happened with the birds. Taako lives in a large house in New Neverwinter with his boyfriend, Kravitz. The two of them have a very large house that, oddly, has two addresses and two front doors. Angus did not know this when he had received a letter from Taako, out of the blue, telling him to come by for his Summer break from Lucas’s school. Well, specifically, Taako told Angus over letter to come visit during his breaks off from school, saying that he “definitely better not be thinking that because he’s in a new nerd school he can weasel his way out of magic lessons from the one and only.” And with that, Angus had to visit.

When Angus arrives, having paid a carriage and driver to take him and his luggage, he’s amazed at the sight of the home itself. The left side of the home is separated from the right, where he can deduce that Lup lives with her husband Barry. Mostly because there’s a welcome mat that says “Necromancy is just Extreme Recycling”. Taako’s welcome mat is a dark purple with fancy white lettering. It says “Do you live here? (Pick one).” Under that there is an option for “yes” that reads “Welcome home.” Under “no” is text that says “What the hell do you want?” It makes Angus giggle a bit to read, easily picturing Taako’s voice.

From what he’s been told from his letters with both Lucretia and Magnus, both sides of the house have three guest bedrooms, all themed to easily home the other people in their family. Lup and Barry have a room for Davenport filled with trinkets he’s sent them from his travels. Souvenirs from their 100 years of travel line the walls alongside them. They also have a room for Lucretia, though Taako makes a very pointed effort to not mention the fact that it exists. They have their last room set for Magnus, so that when he visits his dogs can stay a bit further away from Taako’s cats, despite the fact that he insists they are very well trained. Magnus had said this to Angus one night over his stone of farspeech, talking as if Taako had told him there were No Dogs on The Moon. It was kind of silly, because Taako gave in without a real fight to Johann the dog being allowed. As Mangus’s personal service dog, none of his family gave him any trouble for having him around, naturally. Taako might joke about Magnus’s fifty dogs running in and spooking his cats, but Angus knows how delighted Taako is to have his family come visit.

Taako and Kravitz were both out when Angus knocked on the door, having arrived a lot sooner than expected despite the New Neverwinter traffic between the New Neverwinter Express train station and the house. Thankfully, the letter that Taako sent Angus has some pretty clear instructions on it. Taako said that in case Angus gets there early, he would put an illusion to hide a loose brick on the side of the house. Angus finds it easily, knowing it’s an illusion, and moves the brick out of the way to get a keychain with two keys on it. Both the keys are different colors, but there’s a charm on the chain with a tiny magnifying glass.

The magnifying glass seems to be small, but real. It takes a moment, but Angus recognizes it as a magic item where somebody has used a Reduce spell on it to make it into the charm itself. The charm seems to have other magic effects added, so Angus uses Detect Magic. An unnatural kind of warmth from the wood of the handle, like if charmed to never get cold. Angus notes that it’s actually a Lens of Straight Creepin'. It allows the user to find footprints, tracks or markings of any person or thing that traveled through the area recently once per day. On top of that there’s an enchantment that will react to the user wanting to use the glass, changing it back to the size of a usable magnifying glass for as long as footsteps are being traced through it.

It’s a lot of thought for a simple keychain. Angus feels like he’s in awe just looking it over, letting the effects of Detect Magic fade. It’s such a thoughtful gift, deliberately referencing his detective work. Something that he would want to use often. It’s a keychain, meaning that the keys will likely also be something that he’s expected to use often. The idea startles him as much as it warms his chest, bouncing excitedly on his feet as he goes to unlock the door to Taako’s side of the house.

With nobody home, naturally, Angus goes snooping.

The house opens to a very large livingroom. To the very right is a door that connects Taako’s house to Lup’s from the inside. It’s closed, but not locked, Angus notes. The livingroom has a large TV and doorway with no door, leading into an almost ridiculously large kitchen. There’s no wall separating the kitchen from the dining room, a table large enough to fit 22 people easily. The colors of the walls are warm, but there’s something distinct to this part of the house. It looks deliberately modeled to appear older, making Angus believe that Taako was modeling this part of the house to look like something familiar. His gut feeling tells him that it’s related to Taako’s aunt, who he knows very little about, but enough so to remember that she taught Taako how to cook originally. The older feeling of the house- the smell of the dining room seemingly charmed to smell like nutmeg and vanilla- it seems to be done for a sense of nostalgia. Angus can practically feel it, second-hand.

To the right of the dining room is a small hallway. There appear to be two bedrooms and a bathroom. The doors are all open, so Angus takes a look around. It’s obvious that there’s a bedroom for Merle, filled with all of the plants he’s gifted Taako and Kravitz, likely to “make the house look a little more lively and less like a funeral parlor”. The window on his side of the house is framed with moss and flowers growing out of the brick by the window, a cool enough visual that Angus opens the window and pokes his head out to see it more clearly.

Despite being in New Neverwinter, the house is on the outskirts of the city. The twins had gotten a place with a lot of land attached to it for the sake of having some privacy. Living in a world where everybody knows who they are isn’t exactly ideal for keeping out paparazzi. A lot of people have a feeling of familiarity with the birds, having seen so much of the seven’s lives through the song that they feel like close friends. Davenport doesn’t need to deal with that from the safety of the ocean, but Taako, Lucretia, and Magnus have already been interviewed several times. Magnus, for his dog business. Taako for starting up his new school. Lucretia has several meetings with people all over the planet for recovery efforts as the head of the Bureau of Benevolence. Lucretia lives on the moon, so she’s the hardest to harass. Magnus trains dogs for the public, so he doesn’t really mind the attention, but is also very good at telling people when he needs space. Taako’s house, from what Kravitz told Angus over the stone, is charmed so that only people that know where to look can find it.

The next guest bedroom Angus wanders into has all sort of assorted things in it, net set for any one particular visitor. There’s a bonzi tree kept in there as a joke for when Hurley and Sloane make a visit for the holidays. Trinkets from refuge for Ren to feel a little more at home when she comes by. Various sizes of athletic tape and hand wrappings for Carey and Killian to use to spar if they stop by with Magnus. Honestly, just some assorted junk that either Taako or Lup thought was cool to hang up somewhere. Despite Taako regularly talking about how busy he is, along with how tiring his work can be for him, it mostly seems to be just talk. He always makes time for the other members of his ever-growing family. It’s funny to see, of all things, how Kravitz is the one that rats Taako out most without realizing it. Taako might tell Angus that he doesn’t have time to read his letters, but if Kravitz picks up the stone, he’s eager to tell Angus about how Taako reads them the second they get to him. The existence of this room is proof of how passively perceptive Taako is of the people in his life.

With Angus having studied everything on the ground level, he heads up the staircase to the second. There’s a balcony up above, with space for a pool table and a minibar. Next to the wall is a cubby full of very expensive shoes that Taako and Lup won off of people playing pool. Angus laughs at the value of the shoes alone, sitting around like trophies. There’s more sofas spread around a table that is very low to the ground, set deliberately for a family with people having different heights. Board games are piled up under the table, many with old or faded labels. Angus thinks that maybe Taako squirreled them out of the Starblaster, labels worn and aged.

There are two more bedrooms upstairs. A master bedroom that has an “open for business/closed” sign, that was obviously stolen, hanging from the door. It’s set to closed, and the door is locked, which Angus figures means it’s the master bedroom belonging to Kravitz and Taako. There’s a bathroom upstairs too, door open like the rooms downstairs. The shower curtain is interesting, meant to look like old text from a book running along it. The text seems to be taken from an old spellbook, reciting the names and incantations of various cantrips in a scripted font. Other than that, the bathroom has a closet containing many towel sets and medical supplies. Spare soap of various varieties. Nothing that Angus really wants to spend the time to overanalyze or deduce the hell out of.

The last door is closed, which seems odd to Angus, seeing that all the other guest bedrooms in the house had open doors. Trying the doorknob, Angus notes that the door isn’t locked, and opens it up. He needs to blink several times to process the room, larger than all of the other guest bedrooms, and very obviously set for Angus himself.

A library on the wall with an assortment of his favorite books- some that he recommended to either Taako or Kravitz. All of the Caleb Cleveland books, Sherlock Holmes, Detective Conan, and varieties of assorted mystery novels. Even a poster of Jeff Angel, to his surprise, noting that Taako would be the only one between him and Kravitz that would know his favorite wrestler. His room had furniture that was made by Magnus. There’s a duck in the shape of the boy detective on top of a note that says “I hope you like the furniture!” that makes Angus realize why Magnus seemed so busy in the past eight months. Next to the note is easily the shittiest seashell necklace that Angus has ever seen in his entire life, with a note from Merle that simply says “because everybody else has one.” He laughs at this, realizing suddenly that he’s been crying this entire time.

There’s so much to the room that has Angus’s head reeling. He sits down on the bed and cries like he’s three instead of eleven, needing to take a neckerchief out of his pocket to wipe at his face. For a start, the room was way more thoughtful than he would have even thought the tres horny boys even had the potential for. They had changed a lot since regaining their memories, but there was nothing that necessarily had him thinking it would be on this level. Taako, for a start, became a lot more mentally sharp. Quicker on his feet. There was a stronger backbone to his confidence, a stride to his step like knew how dangerous he was. Taako was still carefree, but there was something about him that Angus could read as protective, almost. Taako still carefully guarded his feelings, but it was more so a means of subverting higher expectations so he could do less work. Whereas before, when it seemed as if Taako wanted to hold even his closest friends at arms length.

Merle had become kinder since remembering. More patient. There was a gentleness in his eyes that had surprised Angus, as somebody who Merle felt guarded and insecure around previously. His memories gave him 100 years of fondness back. Looking after his family. There was almost a soothing effect to being around him now, like watching the ocean at a beach. He still had a sharp sense of humor and a thing for plants, and he still maybe forgot what his spells were, but there was something about him that Angus could only describe as a capybara effect. He suddenly was a stronger foundation, somebody that steadied the hotheads of the birds. It was clearer now more than ever why he was regarded as the peacemaker.

Magnus still rushes in, but with a sense of purpose. He still acts before he thinks, but he’s a lot more balanced. He brings with him a sense of safety that makes everyone else in the room feel more at ease. It’s funny, really, to see that in a human with no magical capability, making a room full of wizards homing unfathomable power feel safer. It seems like having their memories back made the trio a lot more thoughtful about their actions. Steadier. As a whole they opened up a lot more, fonder and more familial than Angus remembers them being at the bureau.

With that being said, Angus still can’t believe that they were able to take the world’s greatest detective by surprise. It takes him longer than he would like to admit to stop crying, face puffy and head throbbing a little. He feels loved in a way that he didn’t quite know he had been nervous about- as if after everything he didn’t expect to be family to everyone in the same way that the birds were to each other. But here he was, in a room decorated for him, with furniture made for him, holding a shitty necklace in his hands and rubbing at still-wet eyes.

Home.


	2. Reasonable Cat Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angus meets one of Taako's cats while waiting for either Taako or Kravitz to get home from work first.

Angus, when he finally calms down from having the thrill of seeing his bedroom for the first time, realizes he has several things to do. He retrieves his bags from the downstairs porch, coming up to his room to put his belongings away. He opens the closet so he can hang up his dressier shirts, surprised to note that the closet isn’t empty. There aren’t any clothes inside, but there is a silver chest off to the left that catches his notice immediately. He takes a second to run his hands over the design, smoothing the silver beneath his hands. It was probably just a trunk meant for storage, or something stolen by one of the THB? It was kind of an odd thing when compared to everything else in the room. It was rather expensive, and even though the birds have quite a bit of pocket change between them now, a regular chest would have been just fine for storage. Angus looks around for any kind of clue when he realizes the chest actually had a bow on top of it that had fallen off, along with a nametag signed “Good luck, kid! -Lup & Barry”. Ah, that’s one mystery solved.

Opening the chest reveals a very large jar of silver polish. Probably for the chest itself, though Angus does have plenty of silver things to polish. The frames of his glasses, a couple of cufflinks for his very fancy suits, necklaces, and the now-completed silver set sitting in his luggage. He puts all his valuables in the chest, puts away his clothes, and sits down at the desk that matches the rest of his furniture. There’s plenty of space between his bookshelf and desk to put away various notebooks related to his past and present cases, setting out notes and spreading them out over the table. When his luggage is finally empty, he’s moving it to the closet when he hears a curious meowing at his door.

Taako and Kravitz have several cats. Angus had yet to come over until now, so he only knows them by name. Kravitz did warn that the cats were amazing at hiding whenever there was somebody new came to the house, but the cats were named easily enough that Angus knew the names of each one by appearance alone. Angus opens the door to his room back up and a black cat looks up at him curiously. Angus crouches down- he’s a bit taller now that he’s 11! Thanks- and leans his hand out carefully. The cat blinks and leans in, rubbing the side of their cheek against Angus’s hand.

“You must be Trash Bag?” Angus asks, unable to say the name with a straight face. Trash Bag was Taako’s first cat and the least skittish out of the four. There’s something called a Failed Foster, which is when somebody taking temporary care of an animal ends up adopting said animal instead of giving them away to a new home. A lot of cats are given temporary names by their foster caretakers so that they can be renamed when they actually get adopted. Taako had been very adamant that he didn’t want to have fifty cats. He was adamant for a while until he realized that he would need to give up Trash Bag eventually, which he seemed to hate the idea of after a month. Thus, this cat would forever be dubbed Trash Bag. Taako has two more cats adopted from strange necromancy circles that the ‘Reaper Squad’ had dealt with. One cat was a ghost named Boneless Deluxe. The other is a skeleton of a cat that also doesn’t seem to believe that it has passed, named Sir Skellington Supreme. Taako also has a hairless cat simply dubbed The Goblin. Angus is pretty sure he might see them out of the corner of his eye, but he would rather wait until Taako or Kravitz was home to try and play with any of them.

Trash Bag has decided that he likes Angus, much to the boy’s surprise. The cat decides to move in circles around him, rubbing up against his dress shirt and getting black hair on his clothes. What startles him greatly is when Trash Bag moves like she’s ready to pounce and then jumps up, easily, right up on Angus’s shoulder. Angus stills carefully as the cat wraps behind his neck like a scarf and lays down without a care in the world, purring. Angus, being very careful not to drop her, moves to a standing position. He tries to put the cat down on his bed, but she seems like she’s absolutely sold on being a scarf for the time being. Angus idly pets her and finds that she seems to enjoy the attention, leaving his room to see what kind of snacks are hidden away in the kitchen.

Angus is in the middle of opening a packet of gogurt when Trash Bag perks and jumps from his shoulder. He sees Boneless, Goblin, and Sir Skellington appear very suddenly from hiding spots in the living room, all the cats running over to the rug and sitting next to each other. The movement happens in just two or three seconds, all questions immediately answered by the sound of a rip opening in the fabric of space. Kravitz, in full Reaper regalia, steps out of the portal. As it closes behind him the cats all crowd around his form, meowing greetings at him and rubbing up against his ankles. Kravitz laughs despite his boneless face not having the features that should let him, looking around before his gaze settles on Angus and he smiles over at him.

“Hello Angus. I see you arrived a lot sooner than we thought you would,” Kravitz starts. Angus is pretty sure he doesn’t remember what his face looks like, but he gives Kravitz absolutely zero indication of this when he wordlessly rushes over and wraps his arms around the reaper in a large hug.

Angus hides his face in Kravitz’s robes, with the more ghostly cats shying away from the new person in the house suddenly approaching. Angus kind of still has the gogurt in his hands, which Goblin promptly steals and runs off with while Kravitz reaches up to ruffle Angus’s hair and hug him back.

Kravitz smiles down at him when Angus backs up, a little teary. Angus’s voice cracks when he talks.

“Mr. Kravitz, I really love my room,” he manages. Kravitz laughs at that, gentle.

“You know, Taako was super wanting to see your reaction. I was pretty sure he was going to tell you some story about how the last guest bedroom ‘wasn’t finished yet’ and play it down like the room only had a bed in it. And then he would open the door and show you what everybody helped with,” Kravitz chimes.

“That does explain why that was the only room with the door closed, sir!” Angus remarks, thinking it over. “I know that Merle has a guest room, but I figured that it was a perfect excuse for Taako to hide the mountain of houseplants somewhere where they wouldn’t take over the house,” Angus explains.

Kravitz hums in thought—a trait he seems to have only recently started picking up from living with Taako and being neighbors with Lup. “Taako really doesn’t like having to water the plants if they’re in separate rooms,” Kravitz confirms.

Goblin, the cat, seems to be moving forwards a little. Trash Bag has been contentedly batting at the feathers of Kravitz’s robe. Both the ghost and skeleton cats are hiding behind the sofa now, cautious of Angus existing near them. Kravitz picks up Trash Bag and the cat does the same thing she did to Angus earlier, wrapping around Kravitz’s neck like a scarf.

“So Angus, do you need help with any bags? I’m not sure how early you got here, but I’m here to help out. Lup and Barry are getting a lecture from the Raven Queen about fire safety and they won’t be back for a little while longer, but-“

Angus’s giggling at that cuts Kravitz off, trying to cover his mouth with a hand to muffle the sound.

“Miss Lup and Mr. Bluejeans are in trouble with _the Raven Queen_?” Angus manages. The idea of Lup being scolded for anything at all is almost ridiculous to Angus, but fitting that the only person brave enough to tell Lup to be careful with fire would be a literal death god.

“I wouldn’t say they’re in trouble. More like they need to be a little more careful. Though saying Miss Lup did confuse me for a bit. If we’re using last names, wouldn’t it be Miss Taakosis?” Kravitz asks, with a chuckle.

Angus’s eyes go wide. “Miss Taakosis?”

“Yes. Her and Taako’s full names are in my book of bounties. Taako Lupsbro and Lup Taakosis,” Kravitz confirms.

“I think a long time ago, when I was trying to learn more about Taako, Magnus, and Merle, I couldn’t find Taako’s last name. I was able to find out Magnus was actually Magnus Burnsides-Waxmen, and Merle was Merle Hitower Highchurch, but the only name I had for Taako was just his first name. I wonder if the voidfish made it so he couldn’t remember his last name was Lupsbro?” Angus asks, voiceshifting into detective mode.

Kravitz does seem to give this a thought, curious. “Actually, now that I’m thinking about it—do you think Taako or Lup would change their last names if either were to get married? I’m mostly thinking about Barry. Taako calls Barry is brother in law, but I’m not sure if Barry and Lup officially got married yet. Would Lup be Taakosis-Bluejeans? Lup Taakosis-Barryswife?” he asks.

At the idea of Taakosis-Barryswife, Angus snorts out a laugh. That very much seems exactly like something Lup would do.

“Would that mean that Taako would be Taako Lupsbro-McAllister, or Taako Lupsbro-Kravsband?” Angus asks.

“Oh my god,” Kravitz replies, as if realizing for the first time in dating Taako that he has never actually considers this. “If that’s Taako’s last name, what would be _mine_?”

Angus and Kravitz both laugh at that, though Kravitz seems flustered by conversation being tangential to getting married to Taako. Angus is about to chime in when his head moves to the side and—

Kravitz follows his gaze and his voice gets a pitch higher than expected.

“Goblin, what is in your mouth, dear?”

The cat, at the mention of his name, perks up with a chewed-up tube of gogurt in his mouth. Kravitz reaches over to pick him up and he bolts, leaving gogurt patches on the floor. Trash Bag seems to notice this and scales Kravitz’s robe to climb down and lick some up. Kravitz moves to take his feathery robe off and put it on the sofa, chasing after Goblin in the other room while Angus tries to gently pry Trash Bag away from the mess on the floor.

Angus attempts to get some paper towels and a small cup of warm water in an attempt to get the gogurt out of the rug. He does hear Kravitz from the other room saying things along the lines of ‘Please, please get down from there’, ‘There is a lot more gogurt in one tube than I could have ever thought there would be’, and even ‘You are being very rude, young man.’

Trash Bag flops down unhelpfully on another patch of yogurt and proceeds to rub up her back on the couch. Angus looks up to see Goblin running into the room at maximum velocity while Kravitz tries to grab him. Both Angus and Kravitz turn, eyes wide, when they hear keys moving in the doorframe.

Suddenly, all cats stop everything they’re doing. Goblin marches up to the door, gogurt in his mouth, and even the ghostlier cats come by and meow as Taako opens it up, balancing a bag of groceries on his hip. He takes a moment to process the situation. Angus, with a roll of paper towels and a cup of water, crouched over a spill on the carpet. Kravitz, completely out of breath with gogurt all over his face, but mostly in his hair. His cats, all lined up to say hello, with Goblin dropping the destroyed gogurt tube on the floor by Taako’s feet like a dog playing fetch returning a stick. Like some sort of peace offering.

“Not a single moment of fuckin’ peace in this house when I’m not around, huh?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still hinting at that lovely Silver Dragon Angus idea. Also, I would like to think that Lup and Barry would be the first to pick up on anything dragon related, but I'm still deciding on who should know for sure and who should just have a vague idea. Message me on tumblr, I'm @tazartist.


	3. Magic House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taako is home and here to fix things!

Taako is standing at the doorway with his hands on his hips, trying to keep in a laugh. He has one of those grins on his face that absolutely betrays any kind of stern look he might be trying to give both Kravitz and Angus. Kravitz waves, out of breath and somewhat sheepish, over at Taako. He puts his groceries on the floor away from the cats, picking up the tube of gogurt off the floor in a way that shows he wants it nowhere near his nice clothes. He kicks the door behind him closed with a practiced gesture and greets the cats swarming him. Trash Bag and Goblin both hop onto the sofa and then fly up on Taako’s shoulders, forming a much larger scarf than Trash Bag alone. Boneless Deluxe, the ghostly cat, takes to flying up just beside Taako’s head to purr loudly in his ear. Sir Skellington Supreme simply takes to curling up around Taako’s ankles, very excited to have the elf around. Of course, Angus runs over and ditches the cleaning products by the carpet, while Kravitz moves in to greet Taako with a kiss and gingerly pluck the destroyed gogurt tube from his hand. At that, Angus moves in to give Taako a big hug, which the elf responds to by wrapping his arms lightly around his back. Angus has grown an inch or two in the past eight months, no longer the same height as Merle.

“First off, Prestidigitation works to clean up small spills,” Taako starts, waving his hand over Kravitz’s hair affectionately. The gogurt vanishes, his hair carefully adjusted through the magic. Angus, with a better understanding of how magic works from his school, notes how Taako is making the process seem a lot easier than it actually is. Taako understands how to weave magic from his surroundings in place of minor spell components. The spell would normally just remove the gogurt and stains by itself, but Taako is a transmutation wizard. Angus can see the gogurt, in less than a second, turn very literally into air. Taako is very familiar with his boyfriend’s hair, meaning he can use the magic to move his hair back into place. It’s seamless for him, but the actual theology of magic is something Angus can’t help but think of. It’s strange to know that there are laws that govern how even the smallest things work, and how all seven members of the IPRE seem to find loopholes in those laws both seamlessly and without much food for thought.

“Secondly,” Taako continues, laughter seeping into the edges of his voice. “Hold Person is only a second level spell. But if you’re using it on like, a cat, it doesn’t even need that much magic. Krav, you’re a Bard. Angus, you’re a wizard. Between the two of you—” Taako bursts out laughing, not quite able to keep his composure. Angus and Kravitz both add into the laugh themselves, finding it a bit contagious. In the panic, the two of them really did forget the potential of a simple and magical solution to their problems. Taako moves to grab the bag of groceries off the floor, whispering something to Kravitz in another language (?) that makes the reaper nod and leave with the bag off into the kitchen. It was quiet enough to have Angus’s brain almost whirl into detectiving, but before he can think of following Kravitz, the elf leans down to give Angus a bit of a hair ruffle before he moves to flop onto the living room sofa. Despite Angus being so close, the cats simply stick closer to Taako for safety instead of running away.

“Always somethin’ goin’ on in the Casa Del Taako,” Taako exasperates. Angus laughs at that, moving to sit down by his mentor’s ankles. Sir Skellington hops up by Angus’s lap, though the cat is careful not to actually touch Angus. Instead he’s sticking close to Taako’s foot, but Angus considers it a victory that the cat is even this close. Taako loosely swings his fixed umbrastaff at the stain on the carpet, and in a flash it’s completely gone. Just leaving behind the bottle of cleaning spray instead. Taako keeps swinging the umbrella around, which Boneless bats at, and which prompts a sudden question.

Taako destroyed the umbrastaff during Story and Song, but now it’s back in one piece. The fabric shows no sign of wear and tear. Even the wood is the same, with no indication that it had been ripped in two over Taako’s knee. Angus was sure it would have burned up quite badly when Lup finally escaped, even. Did Taako make another one? The magical properties that allow it to eat the foci of defeated magic users is something that can’t be replicated easily. It would have to be the same one. Angus is sure that Taako used the Krebstar during Story and Song as his magical focus. While he understands Lup wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the umbrella she was trapped in for almost 15 years, and that Lup would have a scythe as her focus now, wouldn’t it be a bad reminder for Lup to see it when she comes? He could be certain that—

“Hey, Faerûn to Ango, what’s got you thinking so hard you look like you’re about to pop a vein?” Taako asks, no longer swinging around his umbrella haphazardly.

“Oh! I was just wondering about the Umbrastaff. Wasn’t it very much disintegrated before?” Angus asks. Taako shrugs.

“Yeah. Wasn’t too hard to fix it up or whatever. Just fuckin’ ate through a whole weekend ‘s all. Told Lup she could keep my glaive if I could keep the staff,” Taako summarizes. He makes it seem like a very simple trade. Angus squints at that, though. Lup likely wouldn’t have wanted the staff, but Taako probably give her the glaive to know she still had a focus/weapon in case she couldn’t summon her scythe. Less like a trade and more like a gift, then. Wait, glaive?

“Taako, are you talking about your Krebstar?” Angus asks. Taako flashes him a look as if it couldn’t be more obvious.

“Yeah. The krebstar, my glaive. Keep up ‘lil man,” he answers instead.

“Isn’t the Krebstar a throwing star, and not a Glaive? I’m pretty sure glaives look more like a staff?” Angus questions. Taako raises a brow.

“It’s a glaive, pum’kin. Like the glaive from Fantasy Krull? It was one of the older- y’know, the moving picture show? Only mine has far more style, clearly,” Taako explains. Angus is more confused than he was previously.

“Moving picture show?” he asks instead, for clarification. Taako stares for a moment, doing some mental math of his own, before sitting up so quickly that Trash Bag and Goblin are jolted from their sitting spots on his shoulders. Goblin mews pathetically, while Trash Bag barely seems to notice.

“_Holy **shit.** This world doesn’t have proper moving pictures yet. You guys just barely got to inventing **film**_,” he summarizes, eyes wide. It clicks to Angus that he had forgotten that Taako was familiar with more advanced, even alien, technology.

“Was it something like illusion magic, like when a bard tells a really good story and they use illusion magic to show what happened?” Angus asks.

Taako shakes his head, but then nods. “You could use magic or even certain—alchemy was a little different where we came from—so there was powder that could capture light in certain ways. Science was like, not really a specialty either. It was something that everybody, including kids, were expected to learn. But, uh, like, essentially there was this shit called film. It was like- imagine a roll of paper, or like a scroll, but one with so much paper in it that it takes forever to unroll. I figure you already know how flipbooks work ‘n shit. You have enough drawings or photos in a row that it moves when you flip the pages. Film was like that, but had enough pages to flip nonstop for an hour and a half. And it would tell a story. And obvs you could record sound on an object, it’s just a simple enchantment, so the film would be enchanted to hold the sound from each scene. And bingo bongo you gotta fuckin movin’ picture. Some people called them Movies for short, but that just barely started bein’ a thing when we left for the expedition,” Taako explains. He’s trying to be careful not to be confusing—something he seems to have picked up specifically from working at a school. Angus kind of appreciates it.

“That’s pretty interesting, Taako. If everyone knew about science or had some kind of baseline, does that mean everybody would have their own teacher? How would that work?” Angus asks. Taako pauses to try and remember.

“I mean, basically regardless of race, kids were expected to go to school. Like humans, Tieflings, Elves, and Dwarves seem to have school systems here for kids, right? But it really depends on how nice a city or town is. Not every kid goes to a school, especially if they have a family business like a restaurant or blacksmithing. Like, parents figure their kids doesn’t need to fuckin know the quadratic equation to know how to hit shit with a hammer and make a dope ass sword. But where we came from, it didn’t matter what race you were, you kinda _had_ to go to school. If you didn’t sent your kids to one, you needed to like, prove that your kids were being taught at home. Not every school taught the same shit, but most people could agree that kids need to know like, first aid. Math. Science. How to read and speak common or undercommon. Here it’s different. If you see a kid out by themselves at a coffee shop in the daytime, it wouldn’t be weird. But on my planet with the two suns, it usually meant the brat was either homeless or skipping school,” Taako recalls. “Actually, pretty sure that’s why me and the tres horny boys were super fuckin’ confused about a kid like you taking the train by yourself. You were dressed way too fancy to be like, homeless,” he adds in.

Angus sometimes forget that Taako is truly an alien. He was barely 150 when him and Lup went on the mission, meaning the twins are around 250 now. Angus is only eightee- ten- twelve- seventeen? Eleven. He couldn’t imagine spending that long in a different world, and expecting to know everything about an alien planet within a year’s time.

Angus chimes in. “That’s pretty interesting. I did go to a school in Neverwinter, and even went to boarding school over in Rockport. But I’m pretty sure it was because it was expected from my family. My uhm, Grandpa would have wanted me to go to school with other people to get a better idea of what different families are like,” Angus explains as best as he can. At least what he’s saying sounds normal enough.

“Speaking of your family,” Taako starts. Fuck. “What ever happened to the old man? Didn’t you say that he died before you managed to go visit him?” he asks, trying to appear uninterested. His ears are perked up and out though, meaning Taako is actually paying very close attention despite his bored expression.

“Yes, he died before I went to the home,” Angus agrees. It’s a rule of improv to agree when somebody is trying to make something up. “And so he didn’t get a chance to ask about the silverware or anything. Now that I have all of it, I’ve been kind of just keeping it with me for safe keeping. It’s really expensive and all,” he adds. That’s a truth, at least.

“Can’t you put it in like, a safety deposit box at a bank or whatever? Carrying that sort of thing around makes you like, absolutely prime mugging material there, Ango,” Taako questions.

“Oh, I just- as somebody who works with crimes all the time, I know that banks are a big target. I just feel safer keeping it with me,” Angus explains. He does feel safer having it with him. There’s a drive in his blood that makes his stomach feel tight even just thinking about having to give up something from his own collection.

Before Taako can ask him anything else, Angus can faintly hear a hiss from the kitchen. Kravitz’s voice chimes in.

“Hey Taako? Where are the, um, Oven Gloves?” Kravitz asks. Taako replies with an overdramatic sigh loud enough for Kravitz to hear, getting off the sofa and putting the cats down as he wanders into the kitchen, ending the conversation.

Angus smells cookies. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now it's more obvious that this is a Silver Dragon Angus fic. I hope the banter between the fam was fun! My tumblr is tazartist.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr is tazartist if you wanna say hi! 
> 
> I'm thinking of making this a much bigger fic about Angus being a Silver Dragon? Mostly I just wanted to write the THB as being really sweet family members. Just something hopelessly domestic.


End file.
